Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for Digital Rights and Contracts Management, and more particularly a system and method for specifying and processing legality expressions, such as contracts, within a Digital Rights and Contracts Management system.
Description of Related Art
One of the most important issues concerning the widespread distribution of digital content, such as documents, music, movies, software, information, and the like, in forms usable by computing devices, via electronic means, and the Internet in particular, is the provision of the ability to enforce the intellectual property rights during the distribution and use of the digital content. Technologies for resolving this problem are referred to as Digital Rights Management (DRM) herein. However, there are a number of issues to be considered in effecting a DRM system, such as authentication, authorization, accounting, payment and financial clearing, rights specification, rights verification, rights enforcement, and document protection issues, to name but a few.
For example, in the world of printed documents and other physical content, a work created by an author is usually provided to a publisher, which formats and prints numerous copies of the work. The copies are then sent by a distributor to bookstores or other retail outlets, from which the copies are purchased by end users. While the low quality of copying and the high cost of distributing printed material have served as deterrents to unauthorized copying of most printed documents, it is much easier to copy, modify, and redistribute unprotected digital content with high quality. Therefore, there is a need for mechanisms to protect digital content.
Difficulties associated with preventing, or even deterring, people from making unauthorized copies of electronic content within current general-purpose computing and communications systems, such as personal computers, workstations, and other devices connected over communications networks, such as local area networks (LANs), intranets, and the Internet, are widely recognized. Many attempts to provide hardware-based solutions to prevent unauthorized copying have proven to be unsuccessful. Moreover, the deployment of high bandwidth or broadband communications technologies and the development of what is presently known as the National Information Infrastructure (NII) is making it more convenient to distribute large documents electronically, including video files, such as full length motion pictures, and this makes it easier to proliferate unauthorized copying and distribution of digital content. Therefore, the need for further development of DRM technologies is becoming a high priority.
Accordingly, commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,012 discloses a DRM system for controlling the distribution of digital content, wherein devices of the DRM system can include a repository associated therewith. A predetermined set of usage transaction steps define a protocol used by the repositories for enforcing usage rights associated with the content. Usage rights persist with the content and the usage rights associated with the content comprise a digital work. The usage rights can permit various manners of use of the content, such as a right to view or print or display the content, a right to use the content only once, a right to distribute or redistribute the content, and the like. Such usage rights can be made contingent on payment or other conditions. However, there is a need for systems and methods that enable one or more parties to easily and securely manage, exchange, interpret, enforce, and the like, legality expressions information, such as contracts-related information.